The Swaggering Effect
by Luminatrix
Summary: Upon encountering an alien ship, James gets flung into the future where the mass effect games are not so fictional as he thought. He didn't know what drugs he was tripping from but he did know that if the Reapers ever did come, he would do his utmost damnest to shove a big stick up their collective asses. This is a self-insert story of a young man who strives to change the future.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi folks. I've had this idea in my head for a while thinking why don't I do a self-insert in Mass Effect. I know what you're thinking. 'Oh god, not another one.' No….this is going to be different from the usual self-inserts. I want to make this challenging by going against conventions of writing in 1st person as most self-inserts have done in fanfiction and somehow without using a silly plot device to throw the protagonist into the Mass Effect by means of using 'Q from star trek' or a 'protean device in some cave'. The challenge of this story is to make this as realistic as humanly possible. To date, I have never seen a self-insert story use 3rd person writing which is interesting. And yes, the character in the story is going to be me J and no _Wade_ isn't my last name.

Chapter 1.

James Wade had been sick in bed for days. His first thought was to grab some chocolate from the local store down the road, but decided against it. He had a figure to watch after all, especially now that his metabolism had begun to dwindle at the healthy age of twenty-five.

Instead, he grabbed a chilled glass of lemonade from the fridge and sat in front of a 32-inch flat screen, wondering what he should do. Connected to the TV was his ancient but trustworthy Xbox 360 which he kept for nostalgic reasons. The Xbox had fought tooth and nail to remain working for many years which had impressed James and he had vowed there and then to treat it as a love-struck car enthusiast would with his classic American car.

Shaking his head in reminiscence, James turned the aging Xbox on and decided to finish the ending and the final mission of Mass Effect 3. The young man had finished playing the first two games several days ago which he had taken to calling a ME marathon. He had been an avid gamer many years ago but like many people, he had to grow up. That was not to say he didn't play a game every now and then, but this occasion was somewhat special, particularly when the new game Mass Effect Andromeda would be out next year. The very thought of it had James salivating and eager to play the critically acclaimed title once it came out on the market, preferably on Steam.

He spent the better part of an hour playing his Vanguard-class Shepard character, fighting his way toward the Citadel where he had to make a choice. Like every other time he had played the game, he couldn't help shaking his head irritably at how the writers wrote the ending. Three choices for John Shepard to choose from, which in James' opinion wasn't much of a choice considering that all possible endings which either had the galaxy in ruin or had Shepard controlling a homicidal, bloodthirsty race of machines known as the Reapers while they in turn, controlled Shepard through indoctrination. Talk about a never ending paradox.

In the end, he decided to go with Synthesis, though the 'victory' felt hollow in his opinion and he ended up shutting off the Xbox and TV in frustration. James sorely hoped that the writers for Mass Effect Andromeda didn't pull the same stunt as they did with the ending of the third game.

Shaking his head, the young man stood up and stretched his limbs to shake the stiffness from sitting in one place for too long. He walked toward the charging station for his phone to check on his messages and sighed as he saw another text from the auto garage up the coast, reminding him that he needed to pick up the parts for his 1969 Mustang Fastback. He still felt ill but he knew that he needed to get the parts before the auto company decided to get frisky with the car parts. So grabbing his keys, James locked the house and walked to his Mustang which looked brand new, sporting a fresh coat of metallic black paint.

James smiled wistfully as he glanced at his Mustang before he jumped into the car and drove off onto the Highway with a baritone rumble from the revamped Mustang engine. It took him hours to reach the outskirts of the next city which he could only make out as a speck in the distance. The countryside looked like the typical Australian outback, with reddish arid soil clumped together with sparse trees allotting the landscape. There were no signs of civilization for miles which suited James just fine as he appreciated the scenery.

Suddenly, there was a loud clap like thunder as a fireball of what looked like a meteorite raining from the sky which broke James out of his thoughts. There was an almighty crash as the flaming object smashed into a large clearing to the left of the road that James was driving on.

"Oh…FUCK," James yelled, as he attempted bring his swerving car to a stop. With a screech of the tires, the Mustang stopped on the side of the road. James took the opportunity to see where the meteorite crashed and gasped as he saw a deep crater several hundred meters from the road. He glanced nervously at both ends of the road and found to his dismay that there were no other cars in the vicinity. It seemed there was a good chance that no one else had seen the falling object except for himself and he pondered what to do.

In the end, curiosity won out and he decided to explore the crash site. James stood out of the car and locked it before cautiously walking toward the deep crater. The crunch of gravel felt somewhat reassuring to James as he made his way through tendrils of smoke rising from the crater. When he got close enough, he could make out the shape of the object which looked oddly metallic for a meteorite.

Jame's eyes bulged and he gasped when he realized that he wasn't looking at a space rock but rather at what appeared to be a silvery-gray ship. A real alien spaceship!

"Damn…you've got to be kidding me," James whispered. He had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming as he stared at the spaceship which looked streamlined, with an angular shape eerily familiar to the design of Asgard ship; the " _O'Neill_ " from the Stargate show.

At first appearance, it didn't look too badly damaged but he saw the occasion sparks frizzling from exposed power conduits behind the hull of the ship. Whoever had controlled the ship had to be in bad shape from the force of the impact, judging from the size of the crater it had formed.

The young man gingerly walked toward the ship and began looking for some kind of hatch or airlock in which he could enter the ship but there didn't appear to be any kind of indentation on the hull that would indicate an entrance. Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise as some sort of blue light scanned him from head to toe. He wasn't too alarmed given that he had played enough games to know that this had to be some sort of electron microscopic/microanalysis scanning technology.

He just hoped that whatever scanning technology that the ship was using, wasn't backed up by defensive weapons if the ship thought him hostile. The buzzing ended and there was a hiss as a section of the hull opened up, allowing James to see inside the ship.

He gave a sigh of relief and gathered his courage to walk into the belly of the ship.

"One small step for man…" He muttered, grinning faintly at the thought.

With a leap, he stood in what looked like some futuristic airlock which hissed as the door closed behind him. He was now cut-off from the outside which gave him pause as he looked at the door apprehensively. It took him a minute to convince himself that if the aliens in the ship wanted to kill him, they would have already done so.

James sighed as he made his way toward the door which opened seamlessly and he saw an illuminated passage which looked pristine yet futuristic and very distinctly alien save for the occasion sparks flying from the walls. The young man wandered through the passage that brought him to an elevator and he stepped aboard the platform that began to move upwards.

He took this opportunity to gather his analytical thoughts. The fact he was still breathing suggested that the atmosphere onboard the ship was the same as Earth, which indicated a carbon-based life form with a similar chemical compound structure to humans. The airlock had been opened from the inside rather than the outside which suggested that the life form onboard the ship had allowed him to enter, possibly which indicated that the alien was peaceful and docile.

Before he could continue his observations, the elevator had slowed to a stop. The door opened and he was treated to the sight of a circular room with windows which overlooked the front of the ship outside. There were various monitors and holo….were those holographic projectors? James took this moment to fangirl and salivate over the technology that was displayed around the room. But his eyes were drawn to a figure that was lying on the floor next to what looked like the captain's chair.

Once again drawing his courage, James ambled toward the figure until he was able to make out its features. The alien looked short and skinny with clammy purple skin and behind the fluttering of its eyelids was the most beautiful set of violet eyes three times larger than a normal human, staring back at him. The most prominent feature was the pointed ears which looked elongated, on such a small being.

James suddenly had the image of a snow elf from The Elder Scrolls, cross-bred with a blood elf from the World of Warcraft wafting across his mind. Only, this alien was tiny in comparison and had four fingers instead of the usual five digits. All in all, James was absolutely floored.

He started at the gasp coming from the alien which looked injured, drawing labored breaths. The alien stared at him before muttering in an alien language which had James completely baffled.

" **Amae lethalas, Garas quenathra."**

"I don't understand," James replied helplessly.

" **Dirth ma, harellan. Ma banal enasalin. Mar solas ena mar din."** The alien said with a slur. It was obvious to James that talking was beginning to take its toll on the alien. The alien extended his hand toward James which the young man took to be some form of greeting. He matched the alien by extending his own hand, while trying to project a friendly pose.

What happened next, took James completely by surprised as the alien grabbed James' face with its hands and he was forced to stare into its violet bulbous eyes. For a second, nothing happened and then there was complete darkness as James felt himself falling until he landed squarely in a very familiar place. James glanced around, his eyes lighting up in recognition as he realized he was standing his old workspace that he used to have in the shed of his parents' house until he moved out.

" _Do you understand me know?"_

James whirled around at the sound of the melodious voice. He spied the same alien that he had seen moments ago now standing with him in his old workspace. Confusion was written all over his face but he replied none the less.

"Um…what is going on and why am I doing here? My parents sold this house years ago," James replied. His voice had an echo tang to it which had him pensive.

" _We are in your mind young one. I had to initiate a telepathic connection since we did not understand each other's language,"_ the alien replied with a melodious lilt to his voice.

"Um…." James blinked. The feeling that permeated his awareness was one of shock and incredibility. Everything that happened so far, felt like something out of a video game but James knew it was real.

"So this is what my mind looks like," he muttered inquisitively.

" _Yes, I am called Yanwe,"_ replied Yanwe. The alien stared around, looking curiously at the various objects hanging from the wall of the shed.

" _You have an interesting mind young one,"_ Yanwe stated.

"Um yeah, so what happens now?" James asked.

Yanwe blinked and tilted his head to the side. It was a very alien gesture which had James reminding himself that he was still conversing with an alien.

" _Well, I am dying. My ship crashed on your planet as a result of an accidental overload from my time device and –"_

"Whoa whoa…time out buddy. Start from the beginning," James blurted out before he realized he had interrupted an alien…a real live alien.

"Um please don't er…smite me for interrupting your lordship but you probably should explain from the beginning," he said half-meekly, half-jokingly.

Yanwe tilted his head once more and looked amused. " _Very well James Wade"_

James glanced sharply at Yanwe at the sound of his name and was about to ask how the alien new but it seemed Yanwe had anticipated his question.

" _Peace. I know your name because I am reading your memories as we speak. Forgive me, my people value privacy very much but this is necessary since I am dying. I am judging your worth to see if you're a worthy."_

"Um great…"

" _From the start then. My people come from a different reality and we are at war with a very advanced aggressive foe who is relentless. Our race spanned the stars and colonized thousands of planets until one day we encountered an enemy the likes which we have never seen before. We have been at war ever since for hundreds of years, slowly loosing. We became desperate and designed an experimental time device that in theory could allow anyone to travel back and forth in time."_

Yanwe paused as his face scrunched up in agony. There was a momentary flicker as the shed went out of focus, like the effects of a camera.

" _We do not have much time….the time device was installed on my ship and I was to travel back in time to the events of our first contact of that enemy. My mission was to warn my race of the danger and we were to be prepared for any eventuality but something went terribly wrong. Somehow, the enemy discovered what we were doing and sent a fleet to the shipyard where my ship was. The battle over one of our last shipyards was fierce and desperate. I activated my time device, ready to travel back in time but my ship was hit by weapons fire which caused a feedback surge in the time device which ripped a hole in space and sent me to this dimension."_

As Yanwe continued to explain what happened, the flickers in the shed become more pronounced and frequent. James came to the conclusion that Yanwe's telepathic connection was breaking down because he was dying.

"I'm guessing this time device was never meant to hop realities?" James asked.

" _No it was not. The tear in the fabric of space caused some damage to my ship including my sub-light engines which is why I crashed landed on your planet,"_ Yanwe replied, tilting his head to the side.

"I see. I wish that I can help but I don't know what to do and my fellow humans…" replied James, unable to finish the sentence. In the likelihood of Yanwe surviving, every government around the world would probably impound his ship and lock the alien away in some dark secret cell for study.

" _You do not need to explain. I can read your mind so I know what to expect. It does not matter at this point since I am dying."_

"I'm sorry," James said, his face cringing. He had a sudden thought and couldn't help voicing it out aloud.

"Um, this enemy wouldn't happen to be the Reapers?"

Yanwe tiled his head to the side and blinked. "No… ah I see from your mind, that you are talking about fictional enemies. No our enemy is actually a parasitic race known as the Zedripa'foralcus."

"Um…let's call them Zeds' shall we," James replied derisively, almost gagging at the name. _Who the hell would call themselves that?_

The world span out of focus and for a moment James was sure that Yanwe would lose the connection, but his fears were unfounded as the shed went back into focus.

" _My time is almost up. Even if I survived it would still take me decades or even centuries to find a way back to my dimension. My people's time have come and gone I am afraid. All we can do, all I can do now…. is pass on the legacy of my race. I have read your mind and find you worthy."_

"Come again?" James blinked in confusion. "Worthy for what?"

" _You are worthy of inheriting all of our knowledge. The entire repository of knowledge of our race."_

"That means—"

" _Everything we know and have. That includes how to build ships, weapons and energy shields. As you would say, 'big space-honkin guns',"_ Yanwe replied, smiling with amusement.

James drew a sharp gasp as the implications of what Yanwe said sunk in. He felt sad, that for him to gain that knowledge, Yanwe had to die.

" _Please do not be sad. I know you will not abuse the power and knowledge of our race and from our brief interaction, I might have shared my knowledge with you even if I survived,"_ Yanwe said.

"I promise I won't abuse this knowledge Yanwe," James replied, feeling hollow on the inside.

" _Very well…."_ Yanwe walked toward James and placed his four digit hand on the young man's head. For a second nothing happened, and then James began to feel the transfer of knowledge as it was absorbed into his mind. Suddenly, he understood how to build new power generators vastly more powerful than fusion reactors. He knew how to build ships, how to cure diseases and how to augment his body to superhuman levels. The knowledge continued to flow into his mind until he started to feel sharp stabbing pains.

As the knowledge flowed, so did the increasing level of pain which sequestered in various areas of his brain. James' understood why the pains were occurring after absorbing some of the medical information of Yanwe's race. It seemed that a human brain was never meant to absorb or contain that much information, especially considering how advanced the mind of Yanwe's race were.

James felt some surprise radiating off Yanwe as he was able to continue absorbing information through the pain and the transfer did not slow down. Before this day, James had an intimate knowledge and understanding of science and physics which he had put to good use in the shed building things. But the knowledge he was absorbing from Yanwe, both amazed and shocked him as some of the knowledge challenged the theories of several reputable scientists.

Suddenly, the transfer completed and the world spun as the telepathic connection finally ended. James staggered on the floor of the bridge and felt incredibly dizzy. He felt the familiar tuggings of unconsciousness pull on him and fought desperately against it.

His mind felt like a sledgehammer had hit it at full speed and wondered why he didn't welcome the embrace of sweet bliss unconsciousness to escape the pain. Then he remembered that Yanwe was on the floor of the bridge dying.

"Yanwe!"

" _I go now…to my forefathers. Amun du wheven,"_ Yanwe whispered, as the light of his eyes dimmed. The alien slumped in the throes of death.

"No…" James whispered hoarsely. He swayed back and forth until he could no longer fight back the darkness and he collapsed sideways, out cold.

James woke up with a start, then immediately regretted his rapid movement as his rampaging headache doubled in strength. He groaned, and slowly stood up though he almost keeled over when the world spun dizzily in his peripheral vision.

It took moments to clear the dizziness but when it did, James capitalized on it by glancing at his watch. From the time on his watch, he guessed he had only been unconscious for fourteen minutes but that was too long in his opinion. It wouldn't take long for the militaries in Australia to mobilize and move in to impound Yanwe's…his ship.

He had to find a way to get this ship off the ground and prevent anyone from claiming the ship. He could only think of the repercussions of anyone getting their hands on advanced technology that could unwind and destroy societies. Unbidden memories flittered in and out of Jame's mind which showed entire civilizations destroyed as Yanwe's race attempted to uplift them with advanced technology.

It seemed that the transfer not only gave him knowledge of technology but also memories of Yanwe's race, who called themselves _Masodians_. James sighed and walked to the various consoles with monitors arrayed in the bridge. Using the memories he had gained, he was able to navigate the ships computers and began reading various read-outs.

The prognosis however was not good as the ships sub-light engines appeared to be completely shot judging from the sensors. The ship was running on auxiliary power as the main power seemed to be offline.

James ran through his options and shook his head in frustration. He couldn't get the ship off the ground and he couldn't use the ships cloak that would have otherwise made his ship completely invisible as the auxiliary power didn't have enough power to supply it. Not that it would do any good considering the large crater on the ground formed from the impact of the ship which would render the cloak useless.

 _Got to get this ship off the ground…There's got to be a way._ James contemplated desperately. He cracked his knuckles in thought and glanced to Yanwe's body.

 _Maybe I can…no don't have enough power….but if I got the main power online then maybe…_

With a sudden brainwave, he ran to the elevator and activated the display panel on the wall. Using the panel, he ordered the lift to the engineering level of the ship. The ride down was mercifully short, and James ambled out of the elevator and toward the engineering room where the main power generator was stationed.

The room was loitered with the occasional sparks flying from panels and the flickering of lights overhead but James ignored all that and strode toward the central control panel that regulated the Ion Neutrino Generator. As he read from the ships logs, it appeared that the generator had initiated an automatic shutdown from the overload as the ship entered the tear in the fabric of space.

It took him a few moments to re-initialize the generator for which he was immensely grateful it hadn't been damaged in the crash. His next step was to check that the power conduits running from the generator to the time device were still feeding power unhindered. The panel chirped a confirmation and James felt elated, knowing that his plan could work.

"Alright its go time," James hollered. The young man re-entered the elevator and headed toward the bridge.

As the door opened to the bridge, James heard alarms beeping from the tactical station and he ran toward it, the feeling of dread creeping upward. He glanced at the display which was showing him several rotary crafts heading toward the ship. The military had obviously sent helicopters jam-packed with troops to discover what was going, though they were still at least sixteen miles away.

With a sigh, James headed toward the engineering station and began drawing power away from non-essential systems and toward the time device. If everything went according to plan, he should travel back in time one year, at midnight to avoid unwanted attention and find a way to tow the ship into some warehouse or something. He wasn't sure how he was going to move the ship but he would cross that bridge in the future….in the past.

The alarms from the tactical station started beeping again which James knew to mean that his time was up. He needed to activate the time device now.

"Come on…come on," he muttered.

Suddenly, the panels chirped and James pumped his fist in success. He was really starting to like the sound of that chirp. He walked toward the captain's seat and sat down, though not without a parting glance at Yanwe's form on the floor.

"Alright, here we go," he muttered, jabbing at the panel on the armrest of his chair. Suddenly there was a surge which caused sparks to fly and James ducked his head under his arm protectively.

He glanced at the display and did a double take. The readings showed that the time device had taken damage from the surge that caused it to enter this dimension which the sensors hadn't registered earlier.

Cursing repeatedly, James stood up and ran to the science station. He didn't stop cursing as he tried to fix the time device from the science panels. Before he could finish, the ship was surrounded by an unstable vortex that enveloped the ship. James had only a second to admire the vortex until there was a major tremor throughout the ship that jerked him off the floor.

As quickly as it began, the vortex faded and there was absolute silence save for the occasion sparks from panels. James moaned groggily, feeling like he had gone through the wringer and came out the other side looking like paste. The young man looked around the bridge, noticing that some of the monitors and holographic projectors had fizzled out giving the room a dim look.

 _The dark…wait,_ James pondered. He turned to stare out of the windows of the bridge and yelped in surprise as he saw a beautiful, mesmerizing sight before him. Space in its infinite glory, displaying twinkling stars that filtered through the windows. He could only gape in wonder at the sight before realizing that he must be the first human in the 21st Century to be in space….on an alien space ship.

"Wait…I'm in space!" James whispered in confusion. "How is that possible?"

His scientific mind backed by the knowledge of the _Masodians_ allowed him to think of lightning fast scenarios and explanations for how he ended up in space. In moments he had drawn the conclusion that if the ship had travelled far enough in time, there would have been a stellar drift which meant that Earth was no longer in that original position he had left from.

Then the implications hit him like a freight train. He tapped away on the panels with urgency and asked the ship's computer to calculate how far in time he had travelled. The computer gave a chirp as it spat out data, and James balked at the results. According to the data, it seemed he had travelled 159 years…into the future.

James could feel his mind becoming slush from the shock but he knew he needed to get a grip on himself long enough to ensure that there was no danger to his ship. If he had travelled 159 years into the future, there was a good chance that Humanity had uplifted itself and travelled amongst the stars. For all he knew, there could be a fleet of human ships on their way toward his ship right now if he was still within the solar system.

With that in mind, he went over to the science station and set a scan of the solar system. His suspicions were confirmed a moment later as the data recorded dozens of ships travelling back and forth from Earth to what looked like a superstructure near Pluto. Suddenly, there was a beep from the console and James stared at the monitor which showed a group of ships breaking off from the main body and veering toward his ship.

"Oh shit," James muttered. "Ok…let's see, main power is still online and pumping power so that means I can use the cloak."

He didn't hesitate to activate the cloak which fizzled before enveloping his ship, turning it invisible to all visible spectrum wavelengths as well as hiding his ship's emissions of energy from sensors.

James gave a sigh of relief. He rubbed the bridge of his nose in exhaustion and stumbled back into the captain's…his chair. He needed information of the timeline he was in before capitalizing on the advantages of being in the future, namely getting replacement parts to repair the ship which wouldn't have been possible in 2016.

He briefly wondered how he even ended up in the future before a fleeting glance from the display showed him why. It seemed that the time device had been badly damaged and the sensors hadn't detected it. It had malfunctioned, causing him to be flung into the future rather than back in time. Unfortunately, the second trip had completely burnt out the device and James had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to fix it, even with the knowledge of the _Masodians_ in his head.

The human ships moving toward his position slowed until they were floating in a loose formation, scanning the space around James' ship. He held his breath, silently hoping that the human ships were not advanced enough to detect his ship under the cloak however his worries were for naught.

"Damn those ships look familiar…alrighty time to get some information," James muttered. He had the advanced computers hack into one of the human ships with alarming ease. He wondered at the strange lax in cyber security but shrugged as he continued rifling through the database on the human ship.

The words, _**mass effect….systems alliance…first contact war…biotics….turians…asari…salarians,**_ all stood out as James stared agape at the mountain of information that should not have existed in reality.

"This is impossible…this has to be. No fucking way," James whispered, looking completely stunned.

And yet, the offending monitor was showing him mountains of information that couldn't possibly be faked by an internet troll let alone a professional con artist. According to the data, he seemed to have landed in the year 2175 CE in the Mass Effect universe, eight years before the events the first game.

There was something nagging at the back of James' mind, like he had forgotten something. Moments later, his eyes were wide open in comprehension.

"My baby…my beautiful car," he moaned.

End Chapter


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi guys/gals, thanks for the awesome reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter and feel free to pick apart any mistakes I make as I have no beta reader for this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect but I do own James. Can someone own themselves?

* * *

Chapter 2.

The hiss of the escape pod barely fazed James as the small life boat decoupled from Yanwe's ship. The young man's face looked grim as he stared into the void of space through the window of the pod bay. The ship that he had claimed…was called the _Espero_ which was the Masodian word for 'hope'. All that meant little to James as he stared grimly at the escape pod that was beginning its descent into the Sol sun.

After rifling through Yanwe's memories, James had taken upon himself to carry out the tradition of the Masodians. A tradition which James thought was poetic as it signified the cycle of life and death. They had believed that all living creatures that sprang forth from stellar matter should return to the source as stellar dust. It was a tradition that James didn't mind the least, especially when he had no room to leave a decomposing body of a dead alien on-board the _Espero_.

James stared for a moment longer at the descending pod as it broke up in the Sun's corona sphere before walking toward the elevator and headed toward the bridge. On the outside, he looked calm and composed but internally he was panicking as the reality of the situation started to sink in. He was aboard an alien ship, 159 years into the future in the Mass Effect universe which he knew would be invaded by a homicidal race of machines at some point.

He did not relish the prospect of going through a war with the Reapers that would end with the destruction of the galaxy. But as these thoughts ran through his mind, he realized that he still had years to plan for their arrival. He had the tools on-board the _Espero_ to start building technology and the knowledge of the Masodians to help him combat the Reapers, but he couldn't help wondering if that was even enough.

One step at a time, starting with the most important question that ran through his mind.

 _How the hell did I end up in the Mass Effect games?_ James wondered.

As he entered the bridge, he scratched his chin in thought. Possibilities ran through his mind, each one more absurd than the last one. At first he motioned the idea that he had ripped a hole in the fabric of space with the time device like what happened to Yanwe, but as he analyzed the ship's logs, he knew that was not the case. Despite the damage it had sustained, the time device had worked as intended by sending him through time. However, instead of being sent back in time, it had sent him forward as a result of a minor malfunction in the navigation array. It was obvious at this point, that the malfunction could not have sent him to another dimension.

It still didn't explain how he arrived in a fictional game however, and try as he might he couldn't find a possible explanation. That left only one thing to do. James decided to head to Earth to do some research and hopefully find answers.

With that in mind, he turned the ship into a low-powered state, while keeping the cloak running. He couldn't use the ship as the sub-light engines were completely burnt out but that didn't deter him. Satisfied that the ship would remain undetected, he headed toward the cargo bay where two small flight shuttles were stationed.

Boarding one of the shuttles, he glanced at the controls which looked overly complicated until memories flashed in his mind. James couldn't help comparing the feeling of it to the Matrix movie where Trinity rapidly learned how to operate an M-109 helicopter on the fly. It was quiet unsettling but passed quickly and he was underway, heading toward Earth in a shuttle which he was certain was going to be flagged for its alien appearance. Accessing the knowledge of the Masodians, James did his best to match the frequency of his shuttle to that of an Alliance Kiosk. The information that he had hacked from the Alliance ship had helped tremendously in that regard.

It took him about eight minutes to reach Earth's outer atmosphere where he was hailed by the Alliance orbital station which had an array of weapons pointed firmly at James' shuttle. He gulped nervously at the size of the point defense turrets which felt menacing even from a distance.

James hastily answered the hail. "Hi um, how is your day. Look…er I'm a tourist visiting Earth."

" **Our sensors show that you are using an unregistered Kiosk frequency, please identify yourself and why you are using a military shuttle?"** came the unmistakable sound of a military female operator.

James couldn't make out the accent but it had a slight distinct Russian drawl. He tried to remember if the major superpowers of the world, such as the United States and Russia had still existed in the Mass Effect games but came up blank.

"Um it's a civilian Kiosk, modified for my personal use." James replied nervously. There was a pause as the operator on the other end of the line didn't reply right away. He felt his apprehension rising and wondered if they had discovered his duplicity.

" **I see, and you say that you're visiting Earth as a tourist?"**

"Yes"

" **Very well, welcome to Earth. Please follow the coordinates to the Liverpool landing ports."**

James breathed a sigh of relief. He frowned a moment later as he had the distinct impression that he hadn't gotten to the hard part yet. The young man navigated his shuttle into the atmosphere of Earth and took a chance to admire the scenery. He couldn't help smirking as he realized that not too long ago he had been an average Joe driving the country-side with a classic car, and now he was flying through space about to do a reentry into his home planet.

James was completely floored. Moments later, he was shaken out of his thoughts as a gruff voice spoke from the radio.

" **Hello and welcome to Earth. Please follow the coordinates and do not deviate from the flight path. We will consign a border officer to you once your vessel has landed."**

Well shit, James thought. He didn't have any identity papers in this time line which might prove to be a problem in the long run. Of course people on Earth weren't about to let a stranger from outta space roam their planet without some form of ID. Did paper even exist in this century?

 _Good one James, you idiot._ He couldn't help cursing himself a he forgot to forge identity documents.

James shook his head and decided to cross that bridge later. He had a feeling that the System Alliance wouldn't take kindly to him deviating from his flight path toward Liverpool landing ports. With that in mind, he carefully navigated his way toward England and entered London airspace. He was pleasantly surprised to find London looking somewhat unchanged in the future but he did notice a clash of futuristic buildings alongside an array of 20th century era buildings such as the famous Big Ben at the north end of the Palace of Westminster which still stood proudly, displaying its heritage.

He didn't have much time to admire the scenery as he flew the shuttle toward what used to be the Liverpool train station which had been transformed into a large space port, looking lively with many ships entering and exiting the super structure. Following the coordinates that the Alliance operator had given him, he found his way toward an array of smaller docking ports designed for shuttles and landed his Masodian vessel with nary a jolt.

He powered down the shuttle and sighed as he moved to exit the craft. As the airlock opened, James was treated to the sight of his first glimpse of the Mass Effect universe. The hover cars which flew overhead in the clear blue skies, the futuristic holographic billboards arrayed off the side of buildings and the approaching border officers wearing the telltale signs of Omni-tools on their arms, destroyed any doubts he had about being in a fictional game, only it felt very real and lifelike.

He couldn't help scoffing lightly at the design of the hover cars in the skies. "Pfff my 1969 mustang looks better"

"Hello sir and welcome to Earth. May I see your identity documentation please?"

James whirled around to see two officers standing before him, giving his ship strange glances. The officers had an interesting mixture of curiosity, confusion and boredom on their faces as they saw the shuttle but they remained professional.

"Sir, do you have identity documentations?"

This brought James up short, trying to think of an excuse. "Um well you see –"

"Stan, can't you see that this bloke doesn't have an Omni-tool. He ain't got no credentials." One of the officers interrupted, pointing out at James' arm.

He had to think quickly as it looked as though the officers were getting suspicious. "Before you so rudely interrupted me, I was about to say that I have technophobia and do not believe in technology. It's why I don't use an Omni-tool."

"Oh great, not another one," replied the officer whose name was Stan. "Them technophobia stooges are right nutters in the head."

James was getting frustrated but kept his temper in check. "Look, I'm a tourist looking to visit Earth's natural wonders and I came all this way…"

"Laddie, without the proper ID you can only stay on Earth for a period of 24 hours. That is standard operating procedure to allow people for enough time to refuel their space ships and restock supplies." replied Stan, not missing a beat.

James nodded and projected the image of looking disappointed. "I guess that's fine. I think I have enough time to at least explore London before my 24 hours is up."

"Hold on, you have to sign some forms first before you can go."

"Uh sure, where do I sign?" James replied.

Stan sighed and glanced to his partner. "Ordinarily this is done with a handshake of the Omni-tools…but in your case, we'll make an exception. Just place your thumb here and my Omni-tool will scan your fingerprint."

James complied, placing his thumb on the Omni-tool which began scanning. He couldn't help admiring how solid the orange glow of the hologram felt. He recalled a flashback from playing the games, where he discovered that Omni-tools were composed of hard light to form the interactive and complex hologram. It was one of the few pieces of technology that the Masodians had never really branched out to, so he made a mental note to buy an Omni-tool later.

"All done laddie, enjoy your stay on Earth, however I need to remind you that you only have 24 hours before we impound your….shuttle."

"I understand and thank you." James replied, nodding to the officers.

"Good, you won't like what comes after impounding your shuttle," the officer trailed off, implying at the subtle threat. With that, they walked away leaving James standing on the platform, frowning in thought.

He had succeeded in getting to Earth but he wasn't sure what to do next. All he knew was he needed to find some answers to his predicament, so he decided to head to the nearest public Library. That had to still exist in this timeline, right?

It took him almost an hour and many muttered curses to find the nearest Public Library while walking on foot as he had no galactic standard credits to pay for a rapid transit hover car. Ironically enough, the library in question was an old 20th century building that looked modernized with the assortment of holographic projection screens everywhere.

James trudged inside with a sigh and began looking for a terminal where he could access the internet, assuming it still existed in this era. It didn't take long to find an empty terminal nearby; however, as he had never encountered holographic technology, it took him a few minutes to adjust.

What do you know, the internet did exist. Well sort of, as James discovered after a quick search which revealed that the Internet had undergone several evolutionary iterations. The current iteration being internet 3.0, which was somewhat amusing as James briefly wondered if PornHub was still around.

Shaking his head, James started researching various topics regarding the history of Earth between the late 2020's and 2175 CE. After several hours of grumbling, James could feel his patience beginning to flay as he continued to search for anything that could explain how he landed in a fictional game.

In a last ditch effort, he typed in the words 'Mass Effect Game' into the search bar and without preamble, clicked search. At first, there didn't appear to be any mentions of Mass Effect or Bioware but after several minutes of procrastination, he discovered a site that revealed much to his amusement that Bioware seemed to have tanked in the year 2047 after going bankrupt. The gaming company no longer existed which suited James just fine, considering the stunt they had pulled with the ending of Mass Effect 3.

Once more, James logical mind took over and began drawing conclusions. If Bioware had existed in this timeline, there was a good chance that the Mass Effect games did in fact exist as well. Sure enough, there seemed to be a few surviving links to websites featuring an old 20th century game called Mass Effect. If James hadn't known what the name of the game was, he doubted he could have found the websites in the first place which were effectively buried under the weight of so many new websites made in the last century.

The websites in question were positively ancient, and if he didn't know any better, he was certain that the surviving sites were derelict. But as he scrolled down the sites, he could feel his confusion and shock rising. There in front of him, featured articles of the same Mass Effect games he had played, including the upcoming game ME Andromeda he had yet to play.

 _Da fark? How could a_ _Triple_ _-A title game be inside the reality of said game….the inception is strong with this one,_ James mentally thought.

He was completely shocked as he stared at the holographic screen in front of him. Why no one in the Mass Effect universe had noticed or remembered a Bioware game that would eventually predict the future was beyond him but if he had to guess, it was probably due to obscurity of a 168 year old ancient game and the lack of information on the internet surrounding the ME franchise and the fact that Bioware had went bankrupt causing thousands of games to be lost.

 _No one likely knows that the Mass Effect games exist_ , James surmised.

With that revelation, James slumped in defeat while staring at the screen as if it had transformed into a tentacle slimy monster, the kind that could only come from something out of a hentai manga series. His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp ringing noise in his head followed by a throbbing white-hot pain that lanced through his mind.

James had only time to cry out in pain before he passed out cold and his world went dark.

* * *

"How long has he been out?"

The sound of the harsh voice woke James up with a start. He took in his surroundings and found to his dismay that he was in some sort of futuristic cell. What brought his attention however were the two figures standing near the exit of the cell, silently watching him with calculating looks upon their faces.

James instantly recognized one of the figures as Stan, the border officer he met back in the Liverpool space port. The other one looked distinctly familiar but he could not recall meeting him at all. It took him a moment to realize why the man looked familiar and with a shock, he whispered incredulously.

"Captian Anderson!"

"Actually, it's Lieutenant David Anderson. How did you know my name son?" replied the African descent. The man looked sharply at James at the mention of his name. He exuded a powerful, commanding aura about him as he stood with his hands in a military posture behind his back that sent shivers down James' spine.

James cursed slightly for his slip-up and wracked his brain for a suitable answer. He reminded himself that he had landed eight years before the events of Eden Prime which inevitably meant that David Anderson hadn't gained his Captaincy yet.

"Sir, here is the fugitive's fingerprint. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to come up with a match…which means this guy doesn't exist." Stan said. The border officer sent a data file to Anderson's Omni-tool which beeped a confirmation.

"Interesting…good work Stan, you may go," Lt. Anderson replied.

Stan gave Lt. Anderson a snappy salute and walked out of the cell, leaving the two men alone to stare at each other. The silence stretched as the two men continued in a staring contest until Lt. Anderson spoke.

"So…according to the scan of your fingerprint, you don't exist in any database we have."

James carefully observed the man, while he tried to figure out a good lie that would convince Anderson, although considering what he knew of the man from the games, he seriously doubt any lie would work. The man had essentially figured Saren's game long before anyone else did which was impressive really, but he still had to try.

"Well, as I told the good officer back there, I was born and raised to be technophobic, in the outskirts of the borders of Alliance space with a close knit group of colonists. Hey, did you really have to knock me out?" James replied, keeping his voice measured while trying to deflect the interrogation.

Anderson stared at James with a slight frown marrying his face.

"We didn't. The Library curator found you unconscious on the floor and called the emergency services. Red flags were raised when it appeared that you didn't exist in our databases."

Anderson sighed before continuing. "Now that we have gotten that out of the way, tell me who you represent: Blue Suns?...Eclipse?...are you with Cerberus?"

 _Oh shit, he thinks I'm either a merc or pirate_ …. _fuck, this isn't looking good,_ James inwardly cursed. He made a mental note to check himself for any health issues later to determine if downloading the Masodian knowledge had caused any brain damage. It was the only thing that could explain why he passed out unconscious in the Library.

"I told you, I'm a –"

"Where are you really from? The Terminus System?" Lt. Anderson interrupted.

"Look, I – I come in peace," James replied sarcastically. He knew he was going to regret it, but he just had to. The young man morphed his features into a stoic look and extended his hand out in a Vulcan salute.

Yep, he was definitely sure he had brain damage.

* * *

 **13 Minutes later….**

"Oh come on, how was I supposed to know that Anderson didn't have a sense of humor," James grumbled. He couldn't help smirking as he remembered the look on Anderson's face as he left cell immediately, not looking amused in the least.

"Congratulations, I have never seen anyone get under Lt. Anderson's skin like that," replied a police officer whose name eluded James.

The policeman, who was trailing behind James, was tasked with escorting him to a room where he would be processed. James had to applaud his Oscar-level of acting as he walked along the corridor, almost coiled like a Cobra. This was the moment he had been waiting for.

"Yeah, you'd think… arrrrrghhh," James started before groaning convincingly. He collapsed on the floor, scrunching his face up as if he were in pain. Then his body slumped and his eyes rolled up, in a passable impression of an unconscious person, sprawled on the floor.

The officer took this time to check Jame's pulse before reaching for his headset radio.

"This is Scott, I need a doct—"

James didn't waste any time as he sprung forth and delivered a heavy blow to the side of Scott's head who crumbled to the floor out cold. The young man started rifling through the policeman's uniform pockets, looking for the keycard that would allow him to escape.

"Sorry buddy, but I need this."

In moments, he found it and began running down the hallway. Several times, he nearly ran into officers inside the building but managed to duck into some rooms to hide. He had trouble finding the exit, but after a few moments he found the back door to the police station. As he was passing through the door, the alarms in the station began blaring. James cursed inwardly and began running down the street, trying to get as far away from the station as possible.

He kept running for over ten minutes until he was sure that he had gotten far enough away before leaning on the side of a small building for support, gulping in a huge lungful of air. When he had calmed his racing heart, he took stock of his situation which he realized, was not looking good. He was no doubt a wanted criminal by the police and they would most likely be impounding his shuttle soon if they haven't already done so. He had to get back to the shuttle before it was impounded so with that in mind, he began racing toward the Spaceport with a newfound sense of urgency.

* * *

A young Quarian, stood with her arms folded, trying and failing to exude a powerful aura as she faced off a group of thugs, murderers and thieves all wearing blue armor with a prominent logo displayed on their chests.

She knew that logo very well. Every Quarian was taught in the Migrant Fleet to avoid criminal organizations from all over the galaxy before they left to go on their Pilgrimage. In this case, the logo which glinted in the morning sunlight belonged to a particularly nasty organization who were widely known as the Blue Suns.

As the group of Blue Suns surrounded the lone Quarian, she couldn't help noticing that they consisted of a many different races including Turians, Asarians, Batarians and Humans, all of which were now pointing their weapons at her.

"Look, I am on a Pilgrimage and I came to transport medical supplies to my people," the Quarian girl implored, her voice wavering.

"Beat off, the Blue Suns are now claiming ownership to this lot," replied the ringleader, gesturing to the supply of Medi-gel and state-of-art Omni-tools which were stored in crates.

"But—"

She was interrupted by the sound of safeties clicking off and knives clanging as they were drawn from scabbards.

"We weren't asking… girl"

"Oh Keelah…" she whispered, afraid for her life.

* * *

James cursed for the umpteenth time as the familiar sound of sirens drew close. He had already evaded several police hover cars as he drew close to the Spaceport. The police were obviously very determined to find him which made his job all the more harder to escape. He had been running for several minutes and felt himself getting winded from the strenuous workout. James made a mental note to start doing exercises every day if he managed to escape this fubar mission.

" _Oh Keelah…_ "

James whirled around at the voice and did a double-take as he looked at the sight before him. There before him, were a gang of thugs wielding guns and knives threateningly at a trembling Quarian who was cornered at the end of gloomy alley.

This made James angry as he took in the situation. There was one thing he hated more than anything and it was bullies. He decided there and then to save the Quarian, and somehow fend off a group of well-armed and equipped hooligans with nothing but the clothes on his back. He considered his options which were limited as he had no weapons or power-armor to protect him.

It left him with one thing to do which was to create some sort of distraction. A distant memory of his grandfather speaking to him flashed through his mind as he made a plan.

' _James, always remember that your mind is your greatest weapon….'_

He always took those words to heart soon after his grandfather had died. It had served him well in the past. James glanced around; looking for anything he could use as a distraction and spied one of the crates which appeared to be full of bullet holes, with huge chunks of debris milling around it. It looked like someone had forced open the crate in a sloppy manner. At a closer look, he noticed that some of the debris was actually an array of intact Omni-tools sprawling around the ground. Coincidently, the damaged crate happened to be nearest to the Quarian who was now cowering with her arms raised as if to ward off evil.

James started to formulate a plan and smirked maliciously. He took a moment to steady himself before he ran toward the Quarian at top speed. The gang hadn't noticed him yet which worked in his favor until he was almost upon them. There was a shout of surprise as finally, one Blue Sun thug noticed him approaching and made to warn the others. By then, it was too late as James awkwardly flipped by the damaged crate, left hand clawing desperately at the pile of Omni-tools on the ground while his right arm wrapped around the Quarian's midriff and dragged her with him behind the crate.

Time slowed down to a crawl as he saw the Blue Suns raised their guns to fire, but his attention was drawn to the Omni-tool clutched innocently in his hand.

"DON'T SHOOT, I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it!" James yelled. The bold-face lie was enough to give the Blue Suns' gang a pause.

"Does this thing come with sound?" James whispered furiously, taking advantage in the lull of the battle.

"Um…I- yes it does," The Quarian replied, looking flummoxed at her savior.

"Fan-fucking-tastic…alright let's see…."James mumbled, as he tweaked the Omni-tool urgently. He glanced behind the crate to see the Blue Suns gang advancing cautiously.

"Hear that lads, this human thinks he's hotshot with a single piece!"

"Stay back, I will shoot," James shouted. He went back to fiddling with the Omni-tool, nibbling his tongue in thought.

The Quarian snorted in disbelief and whispered incredulously. "With what, air pellets? You don't have a gun, human."

"Oh ye of lil' faith….aha gotcha," James replied victoriously. He did a mental jig as his plan was coming along nicely.

"We only want the Quarian. We'll let you go human."

James almost snorted at that. _Yeah right, after what I saw what the Blue Suns did to Garrus in ME 2…_

"Hey, how do I ramp up the volume to maximum on this thing?" James whispered, pointing at the Omni-tool.

"Like this," The Quarian replied as her three-fingered hand flew across the holographic display of the Omni-tool at dizzying speeds. There was a beep which James took to mean that the Omni-tool was ready.

James smiled in satisfaction and nodded at her who simply stared back incredulously at him. She took the moment to study the human before asking a question.

"Err, what are you doing?"

"Well, I thought that I should be a gentleman and save you," James replied, flashing white teeth.

Once again, she snorted and answered derisively. "Well you're doing a _marvelous_ job so far"

"Aha Aha…not until the fat lady sings," he replied, wagging is finger at her.

"What…?"

At her confusion, he elaborated with a single word and a jab of his finger at the Omni-tool. "This!"

There was a loud wailing of a very…familiar siren that all criminals had come to know intimately, emanating from the Omni-tool in James' hand.

"Quick, the Alliance is coming, gather the crates and heave to." The Blue Sun ringleader shouted. The gang gathered the crates and stumbled down the street as fast they could with their heavy load.

As they faded into the distance, James smiled in relief. He took a chance to glance at the startled Quarian before turning off the siren from his Omni-tool.

"How did you do that?" The Quarian asked, dumbfounded.

"Psychology 101, criminals always run at the sound of Sirens," James replied, looking faintly smug.

"But…how?"

"Well that was simple. I downloaded an audio file of the standard police siren from the Internet and played the audio. Thank god this thing has wireless," he answered, admiring his Omni-tool.

"I can't believe that worked…that's…" She stuttered, while her body language displayed shock and amazement.

"Well, it looks like they're gone…you're welcome by the way," said James. The young man stood up from his crouch and looked about at the empty street. The crates that had been there moments ago was gone, no doubt carried away by the Blue Suns.

"Oh no, they took everything," she cried out in dismay. James squinted at the Quarian who looked upset over the loss of the crates.

"I take it that it was yours?"

"Oh Keelah…yes I was on my Pilgrimage. I was sent to buy Medi-gel and the latest Omnitools in bulk for the Migrant Fleet." She replied, looking downtrodden.

James looked sympathetically at the Quarian and wondered if there was anything he could do. He was reminded of his situation moments later as he heard the faint sounds of sirens in the distance. James shook his head and knew that there was nothing he could do for her.

"Look, I'm… er sorry for what has happened, maybe you can be re-reimbursed for your losses if you file a complaint or something, but right now I gotta go as I'm on the clock," James replied solemnly.

There was brief silence as the Quarian considered his words, before she shocked him with her reply.

"Then I am coming with you."

"I'm sorry but no. It's too damn dangerous," he said firmly.

The Quarian crossed her arms stubbornly which had the effect of accentuating her already sizable bosom. James had to consciously keep his eyes from drifting down as he stared at her.

"As hard as it is to believe, you saved my life and my people have an edict when it comes to this by returning the gesture in kind so I am coming with you until my debt is repaid," she said stubbornly.

"I….grrr. Fine, we need to get to my shuttle at the Spaceport. Try and keep up with me," James relented.

They ran down the street, heading toward the giant space port with the sound of sirens snapping at their heels.

"I'm Lunna'Hillo vas Mizal," Lunna' panted as she ran.

"Hi Lunna', my name is James…Bond, look… we'll get to know each other later but right now we need to leave," He replied urgently.

* * *

Several minutes later, two panting figures stumbled onto the shuttle platform upon which the Masodian vessel was stationed. Lunna'Hillo vas Mizal stared at the human who had saved her from the Blue Suns, puzzled as to why he was in a hurry. His particular behavior was the greatest source of her consternation, and it didn't escape her notice that he ran as if a rampaging horde of Geth Armatures were snapping at his heels.

"Who are we running from, James?" Lunna' asked.

"Later," he replied, glancing around cautiously.

Lunna' was about to reply when she noticed the shuttle which looked very alien and unlike anything she had ever seen before.

"What- who built this ship? I have never seen anything like it," she wondered aloud.

"I'll explain later, we gotta get this bird off the ground," James explained unhelpfully.

"Are those…Alliance clamps around your ship?"

James looked to where Lunna' was pointing and swore loudly. The alliance had managed to impound his ship with clamps to prevent him from leaving.

"Damn it," he yelled in frustration.

Lunna' stared suspiciously at James, wondering if he was some sort of criminal. But as she recalled how he had saved her life, she couldn't picture him as a bad or evil bosh'tet. After a moment of conflicting thoughts, she decided to place her trust in this human.

"James, I will hack into the clamp system and we should be able to take off….but I want an explanation when this is over," she said, glaring at him for emphasis.

"Thank you, sweet cheeks. I promise I'll explain everything when we're out of Alliance space," James replied graciously.

"Did you just….you know what, never mind," Lunna' muttered somewhat exasperated. The young exotic woman walked to the console panel on the far side of the platform and slapped away on the terminal with more force than usual all the while muttering about crazy humans.

James grinned innocently and entered the shuttle to warm up the engines. It took a few moments for Lunna' to hack the terminal and unclasp the clamps holding the shuttle in place. The sounds of sirens were getting closer as Lunna' entered the shuttle. James for his part could feel the beginnings of a nervous tick as he was getting tired of hearing the sirens.

"That sound should be illegal," he muttered.

"What?"

"Never mind….are the clamps gone?" He asked her.

The Quarian nodded solemnly and sat down in the co-pilots chair. James didn't hesitate to lift into the air and fly at maximum speed into space.

As they flew, James slumped in his chair and sighed heavily. He had been awake for over eighteen hours ever since he had entered this dimension and it was beginning to take a toll on him. He was about to capitalize on the silence and peace until Murphy's Law decided to crash the party.

" **Unknown Vessel, our scans are showing an illegal take-off. You have ten seconds to land your shuttle or we will be forced to open fire."**

"Oh for crying out aloud," James muttered, glaring at the radio. He put every ounce of power into the sub-light engines and flew directly toward the Espero. With any luck, the Alliance wouldn't have a chance to scramble fighters to intercept their shuttle. But that was not to be, as there was an incessant beeping coming from the sensor telemetry terminal which showed over 30 fighters heading toward their shuttle.

"Fuck you Murhpy's Law!"

"What is this Murphy's law?" Lunna' deigned to ask him.

James glanced at Lunna' then turned back to his console and replied sadly. "It's something worse than the Geth….and even far worse than Clowns. It's…trust me, you don't want to encounter it, sweet cheeks"

"Would you stop calling me that – that name," Lunna' snapped at him, gritting her teeth. James gave her a lopsided smile before he jerked as the radio flared to life.

" **This is your last warning. Disable your engines and prepare to land, failure to –"**

James had enough and turned the radio off with a grunt. He glanced at the monitor which showed the fighters slowly advancing on his ship, despite the fact he was already at maximum speed limit his shuttle could travel.

"Damn, this isn't good, we'll never make it back to the Espero before the fighters reach us," James muttered angrily.

"What do we do?" Lunna' asked him worriedly.

James thought furiously for a few seconds. He needed a way to shake off the fighters long enough to reach the Espero. He glanced at the sensors and noticed that he was approaching Jupiter. His eyes widened as a light bulb went off in his head.

"Mmmm, this should work," he mumbled. The young man piloted the shuttle toward the gas giant which was rapidly growing larger in their field of vision every second.

"What are you doing?" The Quarian inquired, sounding nervous.

"We need to shake those fighters and the only way to do that is to do an aero-braking maneuver around Jupiter….the gas giant should throw off their sensors long enough for us to reach the Espero. It should make us temporarily invisible to them…hopefully."

"Hopefully? This is crazy….you are crazy," Lunna' retorted. She began to panic and her breathing grew irregular.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine sweet cheeks," he replied, flashing her grin.

Lunna's anger flared and she started rambling in her native language. James smirked, somewhat amused at how easily it was to rile up the Quarian but it had the effect of getting rid of her panic attack.

"Alright here we go," James said, for Lunna's benefit. The shuttle began to jerk and shudder as the gravity of the gas giant took hold. The force propelled the shuttle in a 180 degree angle, while rapidly accelerating the vessel far beyond the speed limits of the sub-light engines. It took a few seconds for the shuttle to complete its aero-braking maneuver and exit the gravity of Jupiter.

James took this opportunity to glance at the sensors which showed that the fighters no longer following his shuttle and he smiled.

"Told you we'd be fine Lunna'," he said smugly.

Lunna' who was still gripping her armrest in a vice-grip, muttered softly. "Crazy bosh'tet."

By unspoken agreement, the duo sat in silence while staring at the stars. Both James and Lunna' were in deep thought for different reasons. During that time, James took the opportunity to examine the revelations that he had discovered at the Library and found that he still couldn't explain how he had ended up in a fictional game. There was nothing that could explain it, but he made a mental note to do some more research later.

The shuttle finally made it to the Espero in half the time than normal thanks to the extra speed the shuttle had picked up from Jupiter's gravity.

"We have arrived," James broke the silence.

"But I don't see any ship?" Lunna' replied.

"It'll become visible to us when we pass the cloaking field surrounding the Espero."

"What – but no such technology exists," she stuttered. The Quarian was stunned as she saw a gray-silver streamlined ship appear in her peripheral vision. James smiled and amusement danced across his eyes at her reaction. He carefully docked the shuttle in the docking bay and couldn't help making one last quip, partly for his benefit of relieving tension.

"Thank you for flying with Delta Express. We hope you enjoyed your flight and please make sure you have gathered your belongings in the overhead and next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube; we hope you'll think of us here at Delta Express."

Lunna' had the strong urge to whack James behind the head. Instead she settled for the next best thing.

"Crazy Bosh'tet!"

End Chapter.


	3. Thoughts

A/N: This is not an a chapter upload. Just adding some thoughts about the game after I finished playing mass effect 3 and I've come to some pretty glaring conclusions.

I wanted to put my thoughts down for anyone else to read. I am 95% certain that Shepard is indoctrinated by the end of the game but not in the way that everyone thinks.

The person that came up with the theory of indoctrination came to the conclusion that Shepard was dreaming when he got hit with the reaper beam at the end and nothing was real at that point. I don't agree with that theory because there were several scenes that contradict that theory. For starters, several scenes were shot in third person both on the planet and on Hacket's command ship which Shepard wasn't visibly present so he couldn't have possibly had any 'omniscience' in a dream.

No, what I believe is that Shepard was indoctrinated but he did really managed to get to the Citadel and make that choice that would choose the fate of the galaxy. Only, that choice was influenced heavily by indoctrination and Shepard wasn't really making his own choice.

I think he was indoctrinated sometime after the second game but before the third game, after coming into contact with the reaper base that was building the human reaper and the derelict reaper. The Cerberus scientists that were studying the reapers became indoctrinated not to long after coming in contact with the derelict reaper. The logs which showed their slow descent into indoctrination and described the process, indicated that Shepard was going through the same thing with the same symptoms.

Furthermore, the weird dreams with the star child and the shadows in ME3 was definitely indicative of indoctrination. At this point, many of you would argue that the Prothean VI would detect indoctrination in Shepard but that's a misnomer. The VI was shown to detect Reaper technology which could detect Reaper implants like the ones found in Kai Leng. The game didn't actually state that the VI can psychologically determine if someone was indoctrinated otherwise. Since there were no Reaper implants in Shepard, the Prothean VI couldn't detect indoctrination in him.

The major discovery that I found in the game was in the scene where Hackett was yelling through the radio at Shepard, asking why the Crucible wasn't firing and wanted Shepard to activate it on his end. Shepard tried to get to the control panel to see if he could activate the Crucible, but he collapsed on the platform before he could reach the panel. Since there was no one to activate the Crucible, it should never have been fired...except it did fire and I think I know why. The star child construct had the platform with Shepard on it lift upwards...and I think the AI activated the crucible itself.

Why else would an AI construct allow the crucible to fire and possibly end its own existence? The answer is simple, the Star construct was confident that it could control Shepard subtly through indoctrination to make the right choice that would allow the Reapers to continue to exist.

If you remember, the Reapers had the luxury of sending a fleet of ships on Earth when Shepard was trying to get to the beaming device that would send him up into the Citadel. If they could do that, then they could have sent any number of ships to destroy the Crucible before it even reached the Citadel. They wanted the crucible to reach the Citadel...and they wanted to find a solution to their programming which had stumped them for millions of years. They kept trying Synthesis which ended with a bastardized form of Synthesis which resulted in the creation of the first Reapers. That didn't work but the Crucible had a new effective way of doing Synthesis which is probably what the Star Child wanted...it was programmed for interaction of organics and synthetics after all.

The last major thing that points to Shepard being indoctrinated is that the Illusive man was able to control reaper indoctrinated forces with his thoughts alone...which we saw in the game as Jack Harper controlled Shepard enough to shoot Anderson. If Shepard wasn't indoctrinated, then Jack Harper would never have been able to control him and force him to shoot Anderson.

I don't think Shepard ever realized that he was indoctrinated as it was a very subtle manipulation. All three choices at the end of the game either resulted in some kind of cataclysm which ultimately ended up benefiting the Reapers in some way.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2 :)


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